19,686 research outputs found
J-factors of short DNA molecules
The propensity of short DNA sequences to convert to the circular form is
studied by a mesoscopic Hamiltonian method which incorporates both the bending
of the molecule axis and the intrinsic twist of the DNA strands. The base pair
fluctuations with respect to the helix diameter are treated as path
trajectories in the imaginary time path integral formalism. The partition
function for the sub-ensemble of closed molecules is computed by imposing chain
ends boundary conditions both on the radial fluctuations and on the angular
degrees of freedom. The cyclization probability, the J-factor, proves to be
highly sensitive to the stacking potential, mostly to its nonlinear parameters.
We find that the J-factor generally decreases by reducing the sequence length (
N ) and, more significantly, below N = 100 base pairs. However, even for very
small molecules, the J-factors remain sizeable in line with recent experimental
indications. Large bending angles between adjacent base pairs and anharmonic
stacking appear as the causes of the helix flexibility at short length scales.Comment: The Journal of Chemical Physics - May 2016 ; 9 page
Translating Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change for Use in the Family Context
Theorists argue that emphasizing changes to the policies, systems, and environments in which individuals live has more economical and sustainable impact on human health than interventions targeted directly to individuals (Kegler et al., 2015). We believe, however, that the ecology of the family remains an essential context for influencing individual behavior and contend it crucial that family life educators acknowledge the impact of family-level health-improvement initiatives. As such, we propose a behavior-change model for the family context that reflects the impact of interconnected family rules (policy), family relationships (systems), and the home (environment) on individual behavior, and acknowledge the underlying philosophical values that influence decisions about development, well-being, and health (see Figure 1; Bates & Yelland, 2018). Although the four framework concepts are interrelated, each can be conceptualized and operationalized uniquely. Future research will delineate techniques for evaluating how changes to family rules, family relationships, and the home impact human health
Nonholonomic systems with symmetry allowing a conformally symplectic reduction
Non-holonomic mechanical systems can be described by a degenerate
almost-Poisson structure (dropping the Jacobi identity) in the constrained
space. If enough symmetries transversal to the constraints are present, the
system reduces to a nondegenerate almost-Poisson structure on a ``compressed''
space. Here we show, in the simplest non-holonomic systems, that in favorable
circumnstances the compressed system is conformally symplectic, although the
``non-compressed'' constrained system never admits a Jacobi structure (in the
sense of Marle et al.).Comment: 8 pages. A slight edition of the version to appear in Proceedings of
HAMSYS 200
On the spectral properties of L_{+-} in three dimensions
This paper is part of the radial asymptotic stability analysis of the ground
state soliton for either the cubic nonlinear Schrodinger or Klein-Gordon
equations in three dimensions. We demonstrate by a rigorous method that the
linearized scalar operators which arise in this setting, traditionally denoted
by L_{+-}, satisfy the gap property, at least over the radial functions. This
means that the interval (0,1] does not contain any eigenvalues of L_{+-} and
that the threshold 1 is neither an eigenvalue nor a resonance. The gap property
is required in order to prove scattering to the ground states for solutions
starting on the center-stable manifold associated with these states. This paper
therefore provides the final installment in the proof of this scattering
property for the cubic Klein-Gordon and Schrodinger equations in the radial
case, see the recent theory of Nakanishi and the third author, as well as the
earlier work of the third author and Beceanu on NLS. The method developed here
is quite general, and applicable to other spectral problems which arise in the
theory of nonlinear equations
Semiclassical almost isometry
Let M be a complex projective manifold, and L an Hermitian ample line bundle
on it. A fundamental theorem of Gang Tian, reproved and strengthened by
Zelditch, implies that the Khaeler form of L can be recovered from the
asymptotics of the projective embeddings associated to large tensor powers of
L. More precisely, with the natural choice of metrics the projective embeddings
associated to the full linear series |kL| are asymptotically symplectic, in the
appropriate rescaled sense. In this article, we ask whether and how this result
extends to the semiclassical setting. Specifically, we relate the Weinstein
symplectic structure on a given isodrastic leaf of half-weighted
Bohr-Sommerfeld Lagrangian submanifolds of M to the asymptotics of the the
pull-back of the Fubini-Study form under the semiclassical projective maps
constructed by Borthwick, Paul and Uribe.Comment: exposition improve
Galleria mellonella as a host model to study Candida glabrata virulence and antifungal efficacy
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record.This work was supported in part by the Wellcome Trust Strategic
Award for Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology 097377/Z/11/
Zinc complexes for PLA formation and chemical recycling
A series of Zn II complexes, based on propylenediamine Schiff bases, have been prepared and fully characterized. X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy identified significant differences in the solid and solution state for the Zn II species. All complexes have been applied to the ring-opening polymerization of l-lactide with emphasis on industrial conditions. High conversion and good molecular weight control were generally achievable for Zn(A–D) 2, and high-molecular-weight poly(lactic acid) (PLA) was prepared in 1 min at a 10 000:1:33 [lactide]/[Zn]/[BnOH] loading. The more active Zn II catalysts were also applied to PLA degradation to alkyl lactate under mild conditions. Zn(A–B) 2 demonstrated high activity and selectivity in this process with PLA being consumed within 1 h at 50 °C. Zn(C–D) 2 were shown to be less active, and these observations can be related to the catalysts’ structure and the degradation mechanism. Initial results for the degradation of poly(ethylene terephthalate) and mixed feeds are also presented, highlighting the broader applicability of the systems presented
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